When Life Gives You a Brain

Physicalism [Part 4]. This week, we’re exploring functionalism — currently the most popular theory in the philosophy of mind and in scientific fields that study consciousness — like cognitive neuroscience. But just because a theory is popular doesn’t make it true. So, let’s explore the merits of the functionalist’s claims.

How intelligent are octopuses? And how many brains do they actually have? This week we are exploring the wonderful mind of the octopus.

Physicalism [Part 3]. This week, let’s examine reductive materialism (often called the identity theory).

On a cold winter morning, the bustling courtyard in Oxford filled with townspeople. They had come for one reason — to watch a young woman be hanged for murdering her newborn child. The problem was she was led to the gallows for a crime she did not commit.

This week we explore how scientists are using computer code and optogenetics to restore sight to the blind and improve computer vision.

Physicalism [Part 2]. Ready for a mind-bending trip into the levels of reality? Where does reality begin and end? ‘…would understanding all the atoms and their relative positions explain how we remember our first kiss or how the ocean smells after a storm?

Merging brains with machines! Will the 2020s see a boom in developing and using neurotechnologies like BCIs? New technologies, materials, computational power, and algorithms are making once-impossible things now possible.

Physicalism [Part 1]. Regular newsletter readers will be aware of my series on The Five Most Controversial Ideas in the Study of Consciousness. This article can be thought of as an extension of that series and the introduction to a new series on physicalism — the theory of consciousness accepted by almost all neuroscientists and most philosophers.

Do all animals dream? Why do we dream? What would it mean if files could dream? This week, we tackle some of the big questions about sleep and dreaming.

In this article, we will explore information according to Giulio Tononi’s Integrated Information Theory (IIT) — a popular yet controversial theory of consciousness. You will notice both Information Theory and IIT use similar words when describing what they mean by information, but you will very quickly notice their conceptions of information are radically different.